By Charles Maduka
The ECOWAS Court of Justice has ordered the Government of Ghana to pay \$75,000 in compensation to 30 members of the Homeland Study Group Foundation for unlawfully detaining them without trial.
In the ruling delivered in Abuja, the Court declared that the prolonged detention of the applicants violated their fundamental rights to liberty and fair hearing, as guaranteed by Ghana’s Constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Justice Ricardo Gonçalves, who presided over the case alongside Justices Sengu M. Koroma and Dupe Atoki, said each of the 30 individuals was to receive \$2,500 in Ghanaian Cedis equivalent as compensation.
The court found that the detainees were held for periods extending beyond a year in some cases, without being charged or brought before a court, which it described as a clear breach of due process.
The 30 individuals were arrested in May 2019 under Ghana’s 1976 Prohibited Organisations Decree. They claimed their arrests were politically motivated and not based on any lawful grounds.
Although the Homeland Study Group Foundation was initially listed as a party to the suit, the Court struck it out due to lack of legal status, citing its failure to provide registration documents.
The Ghanaian government argued that the detentions were justified on national security grounds, but the Court ruled that such justifications do not override the obligation to follow due legal procedures.
The judges also rejected the applicants’ claim to the right of self-determination, stating that they lacked the legal standing to assert such a right on behalf of a people or community.
In addition to the compensation, the Ghanaian government was directed to either prosecute the applicants within two weeks or release them unconditionally. The Court dismissed other reliefs sought and ordered both parties to bear their own legal costs.
The full judgment will be made available after the judges sign the official document.
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